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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
8. Creative Strategy:
Planning and Development
tion as well as information. Ads and commercials appeal to, and often
create or shape, consumers’ problems, desires, and goals. From the
marketer’s perspective, the advertising message is a way to tell consumers
how the product or service can solve a problem or help satisfy
desires or achieve goals. Advertising can also be used to create images
or associations and position a brand in the consumer’s mind as well as
transform the experience of buying and/or using a product or service.
Many consumers who have never driven or even ridden in a BMW perceive
it as “the ultimate driving machine” (Exhibit 8-1). Many people
feel good about sending Hallmark greeting cards because they have
internalized the company’s advertising theme, “when you care enough
to send the very best.”
One need only watch an evening of commercials or peruse a few
magazines to realize there are a myriad of ways to convey an advertising
message. Underlying all of these messages, however, are a creative
strategy that determines what the advertising message will say
or communicate and creative tactics for how the message strategy
will be executed. In this chapter, we focus on advertising creative
strategy. We consider what is meant by creativity, particularly as it
relates to advertising, and examine a well-known approach to creativity
in advertising.
We also examine the creative strategy development process and various approaches
to determining the big idea that will be used as the central theme of the advertising
campaign and translated into attention-getting, distinctive, and memorable messages.
Creative specialists are finding it more and more difficult to come up with big ideas
that will break through the clutter and still satisfy the concerns of their risk-averse
clients. Yet their clients are continually challenging them to find the creative message
that will strike a responsive chord with their target audience.
Some of you may not be directly involved in the design and creation of ads; you
may choose to work in another agency department or on the client side of the business.
However, because creative strategy is often so crucial to the success of the
firm’s promotional effort, everyone involved in the promotional process should
understand the creative strategy and tactics that underlie the development of advertising
campaigns and messages, as well as the creative options available to the advertiser.
Also, individuals on the client side as well as agency people outside the creative
department must work with the creative specialists in developing the advertising
campaign, implementing it, and evaluating its effectiveness. Thus, marketing and
product managers, account representatives, researchers, and media personnel must
appreciate the creative process and develop a productive relationship with creative
personnel.
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Exhibit 8-1 Excellent
advertising helps create an
image for BMW
automobiles as “the
ultimate driving machine”
For many students, as well as many advertising and The Importance of Creativity
marketing practitioners, the most interesting aspect of
advertising is the creative side. We have all at one time
in Advertising
or another been intrigued by an ad and admired the
creative insight that went into it. A great ad is a joy to
behold and often an epic to create, as the cost of producing a TV commercial can
exceed $1 million. Many companies see this as money well spent. They realize that the
manner in which the advertising message is developed and executed is often critical to
the success of the promotional program, which in turn can influence the effectiveness
of the entire marketing program. Procter & Gamble, Levi Strauss, Nissan, General
Motors, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nike, McDonald’s, and many other companies spend
millions of dollars each year to produce advertising messages and hundreds of millions
more to purchase media time and space to run them. While these companies
make excellent products, they realize creative advertising is also an important part of
their marketing success.
Good creative strategy and execution can often be central to determining the success
of a product or service or reversing the fortunes of a struggling brand. Conversely, an
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Chapter Eight Creative Strategy: Planning and Development